Back to the Future

It's been a month since we returned from Tour of the Unknown Coast and Healdsburg. Time passes quickly. It's just dawned on me how little time I have left to prepare for our cycling trip to the French Alps in September. I spent March and April gearing up for TUC but since getting back I've been a little lazy about riding. Oh, I've been riding, but not with much focus. I think it's the weather. It was very summer-ish the week we returned but it's been more winter-like the past few weeks. Including today. I tried to go for a ride but was stopped twice at the front door. The first time it was a light shower, so I went back inside to wait for it to pass. When it looked sufficiently dry I put my bike in the car. I noticed the neighbor was painting his house. I figured if he can paint his house in the rain then I can ride in the rain. Because that's how we Portlanders roll. Or not. I went back inside to put on leg warmers and by the time I stepped on the front porch again it was raining hard. I paced inside for a few minutes then decided it was over. I changed out of my bike clothes and into my yogi clothes, did some stretching and then got on the bike trainer, neither of which I have done since April. But with just 10 weeks to FA (French Alps) there is no more time to spare. I have to start focusing again on what's looming ahead.

Toward that end I've been scouring cycling websites to find 'event' rides (like TUC) that have suitable routes for me. Each event ride has its own personality (flat v. hilly; elevation gain; scenery; location) so it can take some digging to find one that's just right. I've got my eye on two events in late June. The first is the Tour de Blast, an 80 mile up-and-back to Mt. St. Helens, on June 23. The second event is the Mt. Adams Century on June 30. Both have elevation gains in my range but, more important, very lengthy climbs, which is what I'll be facing in the FA. This makes them good practice rides for Europe. As always, I'd plan on doing the long climbs but shorter total mileage than the full event. And, of course, we have to wait to see if the weather will cooperates. In the meantime it's back to cycling-with-a-purpose closer to home, including some time on the indoor trainer.

Time to post our year-to-date stats for the end of May. Clearly, Chris's 105,000 feet of climbing in May for that water bottle (which has yet to arrive) gave him a slight lead over me in the Elevation Gain  category.

But Who's Counting, We're Just In It for the Scenery

ELLEN YEAR-TO-DATE, ENDING MAY 2012

YEAR-TO-DATE
Distance	868 mi
Time	74 hours
Elev Gain	80,171 ft
Rides	35

CHRIS YEAR-TO-DATE, ENDING MAY 2012

YEAR-TO-DATE
Distance	2,344 mi
Time	170 hours
Elev Gain	255,300 ft
Rides	74

Shelter Cove / Healdsburg: Life is Rough

Shelter Cove

After scooping me off the pavement at the Tour of the Unknown Coast we drove to Shelter Cove to recuperate. Shelter Cove is at the end of a steep narrow winding road that goes up and over the coastal mountains and dumps you at the foot of the ocean. It's not on the way to anything. There is just the one road in and out. We'd read about Shelter Cove a few years ago but descriptions of unfriendly locals who didn't like outsiders didn't sound inviting. We had images of a dank place with locals running wild in the streets slashing tires of unsuspecting tourists and that was enough to keep us away. This time we put on a brave face and reserved one night at the oceanfront Ocean Tides Inn, to recover from the Tour before driving inland to wine country and Healdsburg the next day. 

Shelter Cove is in a gorgeous setting, and the locals turned out to be perfectly friendly. There are lots of homes, few services, fewer people, and a small plane runway down the middle of town with a 9 hole golf course encircling it (the golf rules state that the runway is out of bounds). The scuttlebutt is that a developer got hold of the area in the 1960's and laid out numerous subdivisions, then built the airstrip to shuttle people in. I suspect that most of the homes are for weekenders from San Francisco. 


It was the perfect setting to recuperate from the ride. The next day we did some site seeing before driving a few hours south to Healdsburg. Of course, Chris could not drive out of Shelter Cove like a normal person, he cycled partway over the mountain and I picked him up on the other side.


Beach pics:

    Ocean Tides Inn

Ocean Tides' watchdog

Healdsburg

This was our second trip to Healdsburg in Northern California wine country. We prefer Healdsburg to Sonoma and Napa because it's smaller and the location gives us easy access to both coastal and inland rides.


We'd rented a VRBO (Vacation Rental by Owner) unit a few miles outside town in the middle of the vineyards. It was far enough from the hustle of Healdsburg that we hardly knew the town existed. On the same property there was a long-term tenant in another rental. Jack was a chef at one of the high-end foodie restaurants in town. He was from Oklahoma, with the accent (and extensive tattoos) to prove it. He spent his time off working on his garden and tending to his chickens. One night his girlfriend sounded the alarm about a wild pig and out came Jack in his undershirt, tattoos barred, with a very, very long rifle. After first checking to make sure that we weren't animal activists, and then assuring us that he was going to eat the pig and not just shoot it, he tromped off into the bushes. Chris and I decided to exit stage left, and a few minutes later we heard the loud bang of the rifle. We returned to Portland a few days later and didn't run into him again, but we guessed he probably got his pig.


I won't go into a ride-by-ride report. Suffice to say that it was unusually hot in Healdsburg for early May. It should have been in low-to-mid 70's, but it was around 90 degrees all week. So once again we found ourselves swearing at the heat (last June, we were run out of Sonoma by a horrendous heatwave). But with Chris's careful planning we managed not to melt into the tar. One morning we set the alarm at 6:30 a.m. for an inland ride, and other days we picked routes near the coast where it was about 30 degrees cooler.  


I thought The Wall at the Tour of the Unknown Coast was a hard climb but with each passing ride during our week in Healdsburg we somehow managed to find progressively harder climbs (actually, I don't think it was happenstance; Chris has a way of finding steep hills). The last ride of the trip was the steepest of all, enough so that for me to make it up we had to invoke our 'catch and release' technique. This entails me pedaling as far as I can and, shortly before reaching the point of exhaustion, screaming out to Chris to come help. He then dismounts his bike, runs back to me, and grabs the back of my bike, stabilizing it. I can them unclip and dismount for a rest. When I've got my wits about me again, I get back on the bike, clip in both pedals while he holds it upright, then he pushes me off. We repeat, as necessary, until I get to a section of the road that's manageable. Yes, you must really trust your partner for this little exercise to work properly. 


Rides:
* Monday: Occidental / Coleman Valley Road / Joy Road. Spectacular scenery at the top of Coleman Valley looking down to the ocean. Joy Road nearly kills me.


* Tuesday: Self-imposed rest day. We eat our way through St. Helens, Calistoga, and Healdsburg. The temperature is brutal. It's too hot to be walking around. We run from shade spot to shade spot.


* Wednesday: The Geyers. I almost ride over a rattlesnake. On the return we stop at Jimtown store for an ice cream sandwich, grilled cheese, and chocolate chip bread pudding (with whipped cream).


* Thursday: Rest day for me. I hang at the coast while Chris does some crazy hard ride.


* Friday: Hauser Bridge ride. We practice our catch-and-release.


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